Thanks for another great edition of IFR. I enjoyed the “Partial Panel with GPS” article. However, I have an issue with the “Getting the GPS Screens Right” sidebar.
In my experience, pilots find it difficult to determine left from right if they are trying to fly numeric DTK and TRK. In general, I recommend against doing math in your head in the cockpit, especially when you are mentally overloaded flying partial panel. If TRK and DTK differ by two degrees, it can be distracting having to figure out if that is two degrees left or two degrees right.
To see how easy it is to get left and right confused, notice that you yourself got twisted around in the sidebar. You wrote that the CDI indicates we are right of course, when in fact, the picture indicates we are left of course. Consequently, I would emphasize your second recommendation: Fly using the moving map to help keep yourself oriented visually. A picture speaks a thousand words (or numbers).
